Heathrow's Terminal 5 is the first UK airport building
to be designed around the technology that runs it.
The difference, according to the owner, BAA, is space - where
technology in other terminals has been crammed into old buildings,
Terminal Five provides the space for the technology to work
properly. None of the
technology is new, but the way it is being implemented is
unique, according to BA's CIO, Paul Coby.
BAA and
British Airways worked together on T5. The baggage system was
designed by BAA, Vanderlande and IBM. A 2D barcode is attached to
each bag with information on where it needs to go, and handlers use
hand-held scanners to update the bag's position on the system and
to work out which route it should take. BAA decided against RFID,
which uses radio signals to track bags, because, IT director
Richard Rundle said, the value of RFID would only become apparent
once airports all over the world use it.
Terminal 5
experienced
teething problems when it opened on March 27th 2008. Baggage
handlers had problems logging into the system, causing delays in
its operation. Passengers were left waiting for over an hour for
their bags, and 20% of services had to be cancelled after seven
flights took off without any luggage.
Controversy had already been stirred up the day before opening,
when comments from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
forced BAA to pull its
biometric fingerprinting system. The ICO had concerns regarding
data protection - the system required domestic passengers to
provide a fingerprint at the security gate, which was verified at
the departure gate. This meant that international passengers who
mingle with domestic passengers in the departures lounge would not
be able to swap their boarding card for a domestic one and enter
the UK elsewhere without going through immigration. The system was
designed to tackle terrorism and illegal immigration, but the ICO
said a photographic system would be sufficient.
Technology has also been employed to increase the speed of
processes throughout T5. There are 96 self-service check-in kiosks,
which are designed to reduce queues. British Airways has provided
flight dispatchers with a system called Trip, enabling dispatchers
to send vital information about a departing flight while still on
the airfield. They use a digital pen to write on plastic paper with
embedded IT that recognises the pen. The pen records what is
written, and transmits the information to a mobile phone. This is
sent via the Vodaphone network to a third-party application running
on a BA server, which inputs the information into the Central Load
Control centre. The forms showing the flight's status are then
available, via a web browser interface, on BA PCs. The system is
quicker because dispatchers do not have to return to the office to
fill in these forms.
Heathrow Terminal
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